What healthcare leaders need to know now

 

The latest issue of the Wharton Healthcare Quarterly is out, and it features a pertinent article from Furst Group's Bob Clarke and Joe Mazzenga on the challenge and reward of developing physician leaders to lead the entire enterprise, not just a clinical department.

 

Published by the Wharton Healthcare Management Alumni Association at the University of Pennsylvania, the latest issue of the Quarterly also features articles on the transition to value-based payment, the coming challenges posed by post-acute care, and creating a culture of value.

 

Clarke is the chief executive officer of Furst Group and NuBrick Partners. Mazzenga is managing partner of NuBrick Partners, our leadership consulting firm, and a Furst Group vice president.

 

The authors acknowledge that both administrators and physicians have work to do to achieve success in this endeavor and that, ultimately, "True leadership is about building teams who create an empathetic and collaborative culture."

 

To read the complete article, click here.

 

 

 

By Bob Clarke

CEO, Furst Group

 

The King vs. Burwell decision once again had healthcare leaders, both payers and providers, holding their collective breath to see if years of work would be undone. Now that the Supreme Court has weighed in, by a surprising 6-3 margin, to uphold the ACA and its subsidies, there still remains a lot of work to do. So the question for the healthcare industry is, how can CEOs and boards best demonstrate leadership to their organizations and their communities going forward?

 

Regardless of where one falls in the political debate, this decision was anxiously anticipated by all. Our industry has had more than its share of uncertainty over the years and having this decision behind us will allow for the great work that organizations have done thus far to continue. Without a doubt, patients and families are seeking access to quality care at an affordable cost, all wrapped in a package of transparency. Significant strides have been taken toward this goal but the threat of constant change and disruption of the payment system doesn’t allow an organization to focus or to plan too far ahead.

 

However, we have seen some leaders be very bold and stake their future on this continuing trend. They have been very proactive in creating services and pricing schemes that are consumer-oriented. Their vision has allowed for open discussions with others about potential partnerships and collaborative models. These are trends that need to continue.

 

These are times of uncertainty, to be sure. Bold leadership, however, seizes on this as opportunity. Teams that come together to think about what can be realized serve their organizations and constituents far better than teams that focus on market protection and guarding the status quo. The latter often find themselves holding on to a model that quickly becomes outdated and stagnant.

 

Patients want and deserve excellent care in a system that is far less complicated than what we have had in the past. May the evolution (or rather, the revolution) of healthcare continue and bring our delivery and financing system to a level that was only dreamed about not too long ago.

 

 

 

As this is written, the country's largest health insurers are sizing each other up for merger and acquisition. The consolidation that has become commonplace among healthcare providers has come to payers as well, and the next several months should begin to determine what the terrain will look like once the dust has settled.

 

The financials are, of course, the driving force in any transaction like this. But the human factor should not be overlooked. Thus, we're proud to be part of a timely new article in Trustee magazine, published by the American Hospital Association, that talks to healthcare executives who have emerged from the experience with some advice and caution on tackling the thorny job of creating a new corporate culture out of two entities that may have done business very differently in the past.

 

Executives from organizations like HonorHealth, IU Health, SSM Health and Trinity Health share their stories with Trustee. Furst Group's Bob Clarke and Joe Mazzenga offer insights as well from their decades of experience.

 

Click here to read the article.